Tesla, located at The Domain®: Tesla's gallery provides a unique California- based Tesla designs and manufactures EVs, as well as EV STORE HOURS.

18 reviews of Tesla Motors "Love my Tesla -- and Tesla service! I called Photo of Tesla Motors - Austin, TX, United States. Marianna K. .. That will lead you to the back of the store where they have a underbody and frame of the car. You can .

Used cars are obviously more of a crap shoot as you never know how much they're into each particular car. How do you think that a fixed amount subsidy helps out the luxury electric car dealer more than every other electric car dealer that sells cheaper cars? Not that I'm defending this law, because it's an incredibly stupid law, but if Tesla's model works so well why isn't it Loss of Reason 7. At one point I believed the benevolent fool Sevo to be an enjoyable source of commentary.

Elon Musk Can't Sell His Teslas in Texas - COMESEEORLANDO.INFO

When Elon Musk launched the first Tesla sports car in , he didn't just set out to create a mass market for electric vehicles; Musk wanted to disrupt the entire auto industry by cutting out the dealership middleman and selling his cars directly to consumers.

Tesla's sales approach has resonated with customers who want a more interactive car buying experience. Holm, a realtor based in Austin, Texas is one of those Tesla converts. He spends a lot of time on the road driving clients in his Model S. He loves the fact that his vehicle doesn't need much maintenance and can be charged overnight in his garage.

Unlike the big car companies, Tesla doesn't have a network of independent dealerships that sell its cars. The company runs its own showrooms, but in Texas— along with Connecticut, Michigan, Louisiana, Utah, and West Virginia —the government makes it illegal to walk into a Tesla store and buy a car. Tesla employees at these showrooms aren't even allowed to give pricing information or to direct customers to the company's website.

Test drives require a special permit from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. Almost every state has some sort of restriction on directly purchasing cars from manufacturers. The purpose of these franchise laws, which date to the s, is to prevent car buyers from cutting out the middlemen—a big political constituency. The Lone Star State has nearly 1, franchised car dealerships employing about , people. The National Auto Dealers Association NADA has repeatedly argued that the current system of franchised dealers is necessary to protect consumers and ensure fair competition.

In a speech before the Automotive Press Association last October, NADA chairman Jeff Carlson stated that consumers preferred the dealership sales model and that dealership networks were "the best, most efficient, and most pro-consumer way of selling new cars and trucks.

But if car buyers really preferred going through third-party dealers, why do they need government protection? Car manufacturers have tried to sell straight to consumers prior to Tesla. In the late s, Ford attempted to circumvent the dealerships in Texas by starting its own stores and selling used cars through their own company website. The Texas Department of Transportation ruled that this violated the state's franchise laws and ordered Ford to shut down operations.

The following year, then Texas Governor George W. Bush signed a law that strengthened protections for the dealership cartel. Now Musk is taking his own shot at selling direct to consumers. Jason Isaac, a Republican state legislator from Dripping Springs, Texas, introduced a bill in the legislative session that would get rid of car dealership rules. TADA claims that allowing Tesla to sell directly to consumers is a violation of "true free market" principles by giving Musk and Tesla "a monopoly just for them.

Lawmakers didn't act on Isaac's bill this session, making it the third legislative defeat for Tesla's reform effort in Texas. But Elon Musk's campaign to remake the car industry is a hint of big changes to come. Google plans to bring its autonomous vehicles to market and even Apple, which pulled off one of the greatest retail success stories of the last 20 years by opening its own network of stores, is working on its own car.

If Silicon Valley succeeds in its quest to takeover this nearly trillion dollar industry , the dealership model may not last. We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic.